Ascellus Announces Creation of Vice President of Sales and Customer Activation Role

With years of customer implementation, retention, and growth experience,

Nancy Schaefer is appointed to the role

MIAMI (Jan. 20, 2026) – Ascellus, a leading behavioral health provider focused on helping injured workers restore their physical and emotional wellbeing, today announced the appointment of seasoned industry professional Nancy Schaefer as vice president of sales and customer activation.

Nancy Schaefer, vice president of sales and customer activation

In this new role, Schaefer will lead a team laser focused on building relationships with prospective customers, turning those relationships into partnerships, and ultimately, establishing Ascellus as the trusted partner for behavioral health in workers’ compensation.

Schaefer and team will own the complete customer journey, ensuring it is both efficient and consistent from initial engagement through referral. A key element of this work will be intently listening to customers, understanding their needs, and then collaborating with the clinical operations and teaching and educational software (TES) teams to develop behavioral health solutions.

“Behavioral health is increasingly recognized as a critical factor in workers’ compensation,” said Ascellus CEO Joe Holtschlag. “This shift is driven by the understanding that psychosocial factors, such as fear, avoidance, and worst-case thoughts about pain, can significantly impact recovery and return-to-work outcomes.”

He continued, “As the industry further understands just how tied physical recovery is to one’s mental state of mind, we are growing. We realized the need for a hands-on role dedicated to demonstrating the value we bring to claims management.”

For her part, Schaefer brings 15 years of workers’ compensation experience to the role. Most recently, she served as senior director of customer implementations for One Call, where she led the team responsible for large-scale implementations. During her six years in the role, she and her team successfully implemented more than 100 customers, representing more than $500M in revenue.

Prior to her role as senior director, Schaefer held a variety of other leadership positions at One Call across sales, marketing and product management, all with a focus on providing value, solutions, and ultimately, success to customers. During this time, she oversaw many multi-million-dollar customer product implementations, leading to an 11 percent year-over-year increase in durable medical equipment revenue, a 20 percent year-over-year increase in prosthetics revenue, and a 35 percent increase in dental revenue over a two-and-a-half-year period.

“Nancy has an extensive background in customer implementation, retention, and growth. We are lucky to have her, and I am confident she will lead Ascellus to great success as we embark on this exciting new chapter in the history of our company – and the industry,” said Holtschlag.

Schaefer is equally excited and eager to get started.

“The workers’ compensation industry has been slow to integrate behavioral health into workers’ compensation, but that is shifting as more people realize the economic benefits,” she said. “With behavioral health services now at the forefront, I look forward to seeing the benefits this brings to our customers in terms of claims management, and ultimately, resolution. But for me, it goes one step deeper. I am eager to see what unfolds for the injured workers we serve as the emotional and mental tolls they carry with them after a workplace injury are made a priority.”